The partnership drilling the Shabeel North exploratory well in Puntland, Somalila, has elected to deepen the well to 3,400 m from 2,200 m to evaluate the Lower Cretaceous and Jurassic sections.
At 2,200 m, the well has penetrated the entire Jesomma reservoir section, which had several sands with oil and gas shows. Upper Jesomma, indicated by logs to be the most prospect of the sands, had already tested fresh water.
The Jurassic section in the nearby Shabeel well had thin reservoir sands with oil and gas shows but was determined to be not thick enough to warrant testing. These sands are expected to thicken basinward towards Shabeel North. There was also evidence that there may have been faulting in the well that could have cut out a great portion of the basal reservoir section, which is not expected in Shabeel North.
Operator Horn Petroleum Corp. said the deepening should take 15-20 days. The company called the overall results of the two wells “quite encouraging,” having confirmed a working petroleum system, good quality reservoirs, and thick, impermeable seals.
“The two Jesomma structures drilled to date appear, subject to final petrophysical analysis, to have issues with the integrity of the trapping mechanism. We are still hopeful that the lower zones in the Shabeel North well may have favorable trapping geometries against the deeper thick carbonate and anhydrite sections seen in the original Shabeel well,” the company said.
